Today, human activities produce a huge impact on the environment. However, the impact of human activities is not always positive but, in stark contrast, it is rather negative and destructive than positive. In this respect, it should be said that humans always attempted to modify and adapt nature to their own needs, regardless of possible effects their activities could have produced on the nature. As a result, the modern society faces a real problem of the survival because of irrevocable environmental changes which take place in the modern world. In this respect, it is important to understand adequately possible effects of human activities on nature and the film “The Cadillac Desert”¯, especially its first part, entitled “Mulholland’s Dream”¯ reveal the extent to which human activities and their environmental effects are controversial.

In actuality, “Mulholland’s Dream”¯ as well as the entire film “The Cadillac Desert”¯ can be viewed as a saga of the conquest of the Wild West by human civilization. In this respect, the difference between the nature of the West before the arrival of humans and the transformations they have brought to the region is striking. In general, the audience can hardly get rid of an impression that the process of civilizing the west and settling of human in the region was a kind of the mortal combat between humans and nature, where both parties lose.

In fact, the film shows the efforts of people to transform, modify the nature in accordance to the vital needs of humans. In such a way, the film shows the eternal strife of humans for the transformation of the surrounding world and its adaption to their own needs, regardless of possible effects of such transformations on other species and environment at large. To put it more precisely, “Mulholland’s Dream”¯ deals with the history of water use, as well as misuse, in the Los Angeles region and its effects on the environment. At first glance, the efforts of humans to transform the nature and make the region suitable for living, including farming and maintenance of normal standards of life, resemble a heroic struggle of brave human beings with the wild nature, which is unwilling to give its sources to humans. Such an impression is strengthened when the film shows how the former desert, where the survival of humans seemed to be absolutely impossible, transforms into the inhabited area where people have managed to adapt the nature and scarce water resources to their own needs.

However, the film also reveals dramatic side-effects of such interference of humans into the natural life of the region. To put it more precisely, the miracle made by humans turns out to be a kind of natural disaster. At any rate, the impact of transformation initiated by humans proves to be truly disastrous for the local flora and fauna, while the misuse of water leads to the exhaustion of scarce natural resources of the Los Angeles region. As a result, the film reveals the negative effects of thoughtless transformation of nature, which were guided by humans needs only, without paying any attention to the environment.

Thus, the film shows that the transformations are practically irrevocable and the overall result of such transformations will be destructive for the nature and, what is more, humans will be affected by such transformations too. Therefore, they can become victims of their own, thoughtless misuse of natural resources and transformation of nature.